At garten our mission is to EMPOWER people to live healthy and blissful lives.
Some experience our mission through our healthy snacks and lunch offerings. Our CEO and founder Michael Heinrich believes that living a healthy and blissful life involves more than simply nutrition choices, to function in a healthy and blissful state, we must engage our mind and environment too.
Leaders of organizations desire to provide a healthy culture, where all of their team members feel valued, respected and safe.
The recent events, tragedies, and unrest in our nation has woken leaders to the fact that there may be team members who, due to systemic inequities, are not experiencing a healthy organizational culture where they feel respected, valued and safe.
Important conversations are happening in our homes, communities, and the media. How do leaders facilitate these conversations in our organizations to affect positive change where all of our team members thrive and ultimately live healthy and blissful lives?
This month, via our Snack & Chat live webinar series, WOKE Leadership: Challenging Inequities In Your Organization, garten hosted Dr. Jeff McGee, CEO and Founder of Cross-Cultural Dynamics to explore how leaders can initiate these conversations and uncover systemic inequity within their organizations. Dr. McGee is a published author and thought leader using an asset-based approach to understand cross-cultural and leadership competencies. He is passionate about equipping leaders with strategies and approaches to lead tomorrow’s organizations.
During the webinar Dr. McGee led participants through interactive exercise to explore:
- The history of systemic racism
- Why inequities still exist and are perpetuated today within organizations and communities
- A Cross-Cultural Model of Collaboration to
Build successful practices and policies within your organization
Dismantle barriers negatively impacting employee performance and engagement
Promote higher levels of financial profitability and innovation
When team members’ wellbeing is a priority and they are able to perform in an environment where they feel valued, respected, and safe, studies support that productivity increases. The reverse is true when the organizational culture reflects an environment of stress, employees feel undervalued, and productivity suffers. In a recent survey by American Psychological Association (APA), three-quarters of Americans list work as a source of stress.
Organizational culture, how a company expresses norms and values through behaviors, is the “personality” of an organization, and an impactful influencer on employee wellbeing. What can leaders do to ensure their organizational culture is one that is free of systemic inequities and promotes wellbeing? Start by understanding how pervasive systemic inequity is within our national culture, then begin to look at how it may be impacting your organizational culture. Commit to making healthy changes and engage your employees, at all levels, in the conversation toward improving your cultural wellbeing.
Blog Post Written by Kathleen Donnelly